Pass Blog
POEMS AGAINST GENOCIDE – LIVE at Chimurenga Factory – Fri 7 Nov 2025 @7pm
Chimurenga, The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective, New Contrast and Botsotso are honoured to present ‘Poems Against Genocide’, an evening of poetic performance bringing together beloved and venerated voices in solidarity with the struggle against war in Palestine
Friday, 7 November 2025, from 7pm
Chimurenga Factory – 157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock
or tune in live via the panafricanspacestation
The Germans genocided the Hereros and the Jews
The Turks the Armenians
The Boers the iXiam
The Hutus the Tutsis
And right now the Israelis are genociding Palestinians
The evening’s contributors will include; Gabeba Baderoon, Jamal Mahjoub, Tauriq Jenkins, Ari Sitas, Yvonne Owuor, Pralini Naidoo, Jim Pascal Augustin, Kelwyn Sole, Laila Lalami, Leila Aboulela, Liesl Jobson, Lisa Julie, Shari Daya, Dinaw Mingestu, Steph Carolus, Susan Kiguli, Zeenit Saban-Jacobs, Petros Isaakidis & Sarah Lubala.
Category: News, Pass Blog
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BAFO & XABA – Madala Kunene and Sibusile Xaba – LIVE at Chimurenga Factory – Fri 14 Nov 2025
Chimurenga proudly presented BAFO & XABA – Madala Kunene and Sibusile Xaba LIVE in concert at Chimurenga Factory on Friday 14 November 2025 for the launch of their long awaited debut album KwaNTU. Sibusile Xaba has been mentored by Madala ‘Bafo Kunene’ for the past decade, and kwaNTU (co-released by Mushroom Hour Half Hour & New Soil) sees the teacher/student duo converging within the inimitable space of sound and spirit that they share through Kunene’s teaching. The album was recorded in Zululand in the town of Utrecht, …
Category: News, Pass Blog
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ETUK UBONG – LIVE at Jam House (Birmingham, UK) – Tue 7 October 2025
Tune into PASS on Tuesday 7 Oct 2025 at 7pm (UK) / 8pm (SAST) for a special broadcast, in collaboration with brother Leroy Jones-Hemmings and his Creative Exchange Collective (CEC), by Nigerian trumpeter, composer and bandleader Etuk Ubong – performing LIVE at Jam House (Birmingham, UK) Known for his unique fusion of Afrobeat, highlife, jazz, and the ritualistic drumming of Ekombi, Etuk Ubong’s original style, “Earth Music”, infuses compositions that are both politically charged and deeply rooted in his cultural …
Chimurenga presents: REZA KHOTA QUARTET: RESILIENCE TOUR – Friday 12 Sept 2025
Chimurenga is proud to present Reza Khota Quartet: RESILIENCE TOUR – LIVE at Chimurenga Factory With Reza Khota (guitar), Shane Cooper (bass), Jonno Sweetman (drums) and Buddy Wells (saxophone). Friday 12 September 2025 from 7pm (SAST) R200 pre-sale (via Quicket) R250 at the door Join us at Chimurenga Factory (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock) or tune in via Pan African Space Station – Centred on 18 years of musical collaboration between bandleader Reza Khota with Shane Cooper and Jonno Sweetman, and …
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: Buddy Wells, jonno sweetman, Resilience Tour, Reza Khota, shane cooper
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Chimurenga presents: NCESH NONXISHI (Apho Kungenje Tour) LIVE at Chimurenga Factory – Thurs 28 August
On a cold August evening, Johannesburg-based composer and singer-songwriter NCESH NONXISHI, on the occasion of her Apho Kungenje Tour, brought warmth and celebration to The Chimurenga Factory. The concert featured an unforgettable guest performance by the late Diana Ferris, who celebrated her 72nd birthday that evening and delivered her groundbreaking poem I’ve come to take you home, which was the catalyst for the repatriation of Sara Baartman’s remains in 2002. With players Nobuhle Ashanti (keyboard), Sam Ibeh (drums), Sibusiso Matsimela …
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: lerato lichaba, ncesh nonxishi, nobuhle ashanti, sam ibeh, tumi pheko
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ZAMROCK EXPRESS – a four-part documentary series on the liberatory sound of Zambia
Chimurenga, in collaboration with Zambian folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Sibande, presents ‘Zamrock Express’ – a four-part documentary series on the liberatory sound of Zambia of the early 1970s. Born out of the conditions of the copperbelt mining province in northern Zambia, Zamrock’s fusion aesthetic of traditional music blended with psychedelic rock, blues and funk visualises – sonically – the urban boom following Zambia’s independence in 1964, and is a response to Kenneth Kaunda’s nationalisation of music content on the Zambian airwaves …
UMCIMBI_LATE
We are proud to present ‘Dialogues on Soil II’, the Johannesburg edition of After Extraction, a publication and research-based initiative by Mpho Matsipa in collaboration with Chimurenga, exploring intersections between creative practice and environmental science. It extends the African Mobilities archive of pan-African voices as a layered text that holds multiple perspectives on African futures and deep pasts. After extraction delves into the legacies of extraction and proposes speculative futures rooted in indigenous knowledge systems and artistic response. The project features the …
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: African Mobilities, Kutlwano Ramphele, Miliswa Ndziba, Mpho Matsipa, Senzeni Marasela
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A GATHERING – for Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
We’re honoured to broadcast a two-part memorial reading (Monday 30 June & Wednesday 2 July from 6pm) for the writer, educator and revolutionary Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938-2025) – organised by our longtime comrades Serubiri Moses and Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire and structured around the chronology of Ngũgĩ ‘s publications. A major thread concerns the arrival of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o as a rebel theorist following his detainment, as well as his long preoccupation with the legacy of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, as well as …
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: Bwesigye Bwa-Mwesigire, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Serubiri Moses
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NGUGI WA THIONG’O – THE WRITER IN POST-COLONIAL AFRICA with an introduction by Ari Sitas
Following the popular success of “Matigari ma Njiruungi” the Kikuyu version of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s 6th novel in 1986, word got to then-President Daniel Arap Moi that a revolutionary called Matigari was going around the country asking awkward questions about truth and justice in postcolonial Kenya. Moi promptly demanded this person be arrested. After the infamous Security Branch reported that Matigari was a character in a novel, Moi demanded they arrest the book! At the time Ngugi was in exile …
FATIMA AND THE DUST – a listening session with Leila Bencharnia
Moroccan artist and composer Leila Bencharnia presents ‘Fatima and the Dust’, a new sound piece, and music selections at the Chimurenga Factory on Friday 6 June, from 6.30pm. ‘Fatima and the Dust’ delves into the spiritual world of Gnawa, rooted in Sufism and other African spiritualities, where music and rituals are pathways between the earthly and the divine. The piece is a tribute to the silent yet essential role of women—guardians of ancestral heritage, keepers of rituals, and weavers of …